Scuttlebutt Europe #3211 - 12 November

Brought to you by Seahorse magazine, Scuttlebutt Europe is a digest of sailing news and opinions, regatta results, new boat and gear information and letters from sailors -- with a European emphasis. Contributions welcome, send to editor@scuttlebutteurope.com

Joyon, The Six Times Master Sixth and Rhum Rookie Elies Seventh The final order of the Ultime fleet ends to reflect a certain pattern as the master of solo multihull round the world sailing Francis Joyon passed solo Transatlanti rookie Yann Elies in the final 50 miles of the 3542 miles course. And that is it, the Ultime fleet is complete in Pointe a Pitre Francis Joyon (IDEC Sport) sixth in Guadeloupe,

This Tuesday November 11 at 17h 42 min 04 s, Francis Joyon crossed the finish line of the 10th Route du Rhum Destination Guadeloupe in sixth place. The skipper of IDEC Sport took 9 d 4h 42m 4s to complete the course of 3542 miles at an average speed of 16.05 knots. He actually traveled 4664 miles at 21.13 knots. The delta between winner Loick Peyron and Joyon, is 1d 13h 33m 32s.

Joyon, 58, is the pre-eminent specialist in solo maxi multihull sailing and collects records. This was his sixth Route du Rhum. But with a heavier and less powerful multi than his rivals he struggled for power and top speed at times, needing higher average wind speeds. His boat is more optimised for racing in the Southern Oceans than trade winds sprinting. He gradually dropped back. But he fought to the end and in the last 50 miles round Guadeloupe, he passed Yann Elies.

Winners Announced - Review of the 2014 RORC Race Season The RORC Yacht of the Year, recipient of the Somerset Memorial Trophy for outstanding racing achievement by a RORC Member, has been awarded to Anthony O'Leary's Ker 39, Antix, for 2014. Anthony O'Leary did not do any offshore racing this year but his exceptional season in Antix, winning class in the RORC Easter Challenge, the IRC National Championship overall and being part of the winning Irish team in the Brewin Dolphin Commodores' Cup, was recognised by the RORC Committee as an outstanding achievement. O'Leary was disappointed not to be able to defend the Commodores' Cup victory of 2010 in 2012 but avowed to come back in 2014 with a competitive team and, by enlisting the support of Marc Glimcher's Ker 40, Catapult, and Michael Boyd and Niall Dowling who chartered Quokka 8, O'Leary crowned an already successful season with a consistent performance in Antix to win the Commodores' Cup.

Anthony O'Leary was thrilled with the news: "I must confess to complete surprise - and absolute delight for my crew!"

Marinepool Ocean Racing Clothing For The 40Knots+ Category When Route du Rhum - Destination Guadeloupe started on November 2nd two exceptional yachts - Spindrift2 and Oman Sail Musandam - were at the starting line in the super fast Ultime class. Both capable of speeds in excess of 40 knots.

Marinepool is the official clothing supplier to Spindrift Racing and to Oman Sail and skippers Yann Guichard and Sidney Gavignet, respectively, will sail the single handed race in the very latest Marinepool Ocean Racing suits.

Made from revolutionary Dermizax NX fabrics by Toray of Japan the Ocean Racing suit offers ultimate protection from the elements. A smart non porous membrane provides exceptionally high waterproofness, moisture permeability and low condensation. The smooth texture of the fabric, its light weight configuration and high elasticity make the garments comfortable. The 3-layer stretch fabric is highly breathable and abrasion resistant, features include waterproof zippers and 3M™ reflex patches for increased visibility at night. Latex dry suit seals reliably keep the enormous spray at these speeds outside. The top is available with a high offshore collar with signal colour hood or without a hood for conditions when only a full face helmet is the answer.

Designed and developed with the skippers of the ultimate speed machines.

ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami On-line entry to ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami 2015 is open. The deadline for priority entries with regards to quotas is December 5, 2014. Entries must be received by January 4, 2015 to qualify for early entry. Competitors and coaches are required to register online, as on-site registration will not be available. Additional fees will apply for entries received after the deadline.

US Sailing's premier event - the ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami - is set to return to Miami, Fla. for top-level Olympic and Paralympic class racing on Biscayne Bay. The event is the only North American regatta to be included in the International Sailing Federation's (ISAF) 2014-15 Sailing World Cup series.

Competitors in the Olympic and Paralympic events will have five days of fleet racing from Monday, January 26 to Friday, January 30. Medal Races across the ten Olympic events will bring the regatta to a close on Saturday, January 31 where medals will be awarded to the top three boats.

Event winners in each Olympic event from ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami will qualify for the 2015 Grand Final, while the best placed 'home continent' sailor will also qualify.

Nord Stream Race 2015 Start Date Announced On 20th of September 2015 at 12:00 CET ORC and Gazprom Swan 60 yachts will start from Flensburg/Glucksburg for a non-stop race across the Baltic Sea. 800 nautical miles away the finish line will be waiting, just off Saint Petersburg.

The name of the regatta is derived from the Nord Stream pipeline, the path of which forms the course for the Nord Stream Race - now for the fourth time. Alternating each year the route runs between Germany and Russia in an east-westerly or west-easterly direction respectively.

"The organisers from Norddeutscher Regatta Verein in Hamburg and Saint Petersburg Yacht Club initiated a used offshore race back in 2012. For the first time offshore yachts race the full distance of the Baltic Sea in the attempt to break the World Speed Record. And the idea is being received well by the offshore scene: For next autumn we already have the first expressions of interest from some owners," comments Race Director Claudia Langenhan.

"In September the Baltic Sea can hold very different conditions which make high demands on the boats and their crews. We can expect everything from a dead calm sea, which we saw during the 2013 edition, to a proper gale as we saw in the first edition in 2012."

The World Speed Record for the distance between Flensburg and Saint Petersburg is currently being held by the Elliot 52 "Outsider" with Tilmar Hansen (Kiel). In 2013 the team completed the 800 nautical miles in three days, 38 minutes and 23 seconds.

As of now the registration for entry is open for Nord Stream Race 2015. The regatta is open for Gazprom Swan 60 Class and boats under ORC handicap with a GPH less than 580. If the minimum entry of five boats should be reached in a one-design class, separate valuation classes can be set up. Owners can ask for more information by contacting the organisers at the NRV (nsr@nrv.de).

World Yacht Racing Forum & Yacht Racing Design and Technology Symposium The World Yacht Racing Forum & Yacht Racing Design and Technology Symposium has been a key event for leading figures in the yacht racing industry for the last 7 years. It provides fascinating discussions and learnings on the latest developments for the business of the sport, best practice examples on growing business in yacht racing and excellent networking opportunities for companies within this exciting sector.

The 7th World Yacht Racing Forum and Yacht Racing Design & Technology Symposium takes place on the 10-11 December at the Hesperia Tower Hotel in Barcelona, Spain.

Attend the WYRF and YRDTS to:

- Expand your network of contacts within the yacht racing industry - At the WYRF meet with event organisers, sailing teams, pro sailors and class associations - At YRDTS meet with yacht designers, boat builders, engineers and suppliers - Discover the latest strategies to grow the base and business of yacht racing - Learn from leaders in the industry about best practice for event management, sponsor acquisition and marketing.

ISAF Annual Conference: Other Business The 2016 ISAF Women's Match Racing World Championship will head to Sheboygan, USA whilst Noumea, New Caledonia, France will host the 2016 ISAF Youth Match Racing World Championship. Both venues are subject to a successful site visit and satisfactory contractual agreements.

The 2015 Nations Cup Grand Final will head to Vladivostock, Russia with Regional Finals to be held in Buenos Aires (ARG), Zallaq (BRN), Howth (IRL), San Diego (USA), Tunis (TUN) and Brisbane (AUS).

ISAF welcomes Macau and Montserrat to the ISAF family. Both were awarded associate member status.

Submission 127-14 as amended by the Racing Rules Committee was approved effective 1 January 2015. Other amendments to the Racing Rules and Equipment Rules of Sailing were approved following recommendations from the expert committees. The changes will be incorporated into the next edition of the rule books published for 2017-2020.

The Equipment Committee, Events Committee and Executive Committee will meet at the 2015 Mid-Year Meeting in Muiden, Netherlands from 7-9 May 2015 with the 2015 ISAF Annual Conference to be held in Sanya, China from 7-14 November 2015.

Full details of all the decisions made at the ISAF Annual Conference will be published in the minutes of the meetings for the ISAF Council and all ISAF Committees, which will be published on the ISAF Meetings microsite at www.sailing.org/meetings in the coming weeks.

Wight Vodka's Favourite Yachting Bar Competition With five years' of winners taking center stage, Wight Vodka's 2014 Favourite Yachting Bar competition is now tacking and gybing to the starting line! With such venerable establishments being ranked in the top position including the Peter Cafe Sport in the Azores as the World's Favourite in 2009, the Soggy Dollar on Jost Van Dyke in the BVI as the winner in 2010, IYAC in Newport, Rhode Island as the Favourite in 2011, the Sint Maarten Yacht Club in 2012 and the One Bar Playa Blanca (pictured) in Lanzarote, Spain last year, we are asking the world's sailors to again put some 'deep thought' into this year's competition.

From all of the submissions, we then choose the top 10 bars which are put forward for the online voting from Saturday the 6th December to Monday the 29th December. We announce the winner on the 31st December and similar to years past, the Wight Vodka crew calls each of the winning bars on New Year's Eve to congratulate them!

Letters To The Editor - editor@scuttlebutteurope.com Letters are limited to 350 words. No personal attacks are permitted. We do require your name but your email address will not be published without your permission.

* From Alistair Skinner: Commerce creeping to Yachting, and politics onto Scuttlebutt? Dear me, that will never do. They will be allowing jeans and trainers onto the Squadron lawn next - or has that already happened?

As a point of information (fact) Dongfeng Race Team is more Chinese than SCA is Swedish, More than the Turkish sponsored boat is Turkish, As much as the Danish entry is representative and only Mapfre and Brunel have more 'home' nationals on the boat so why do some people seem to have a downer on Dongfeng - dare I say it that this attitude goes way beyond sailing? Or could it be they put a few noses out of joint by coming second in Leg 1? Not bad for a team that is there because "viable entries were scarce"

Take into account the shore team and reserve sailors and Dongfeng has 10 Chinese in the team, hardly just a flag of convenience then. Every company's money is the same colour and if it happens to be Chinese Yuan that helps keep the race alive and makes it more exciting then good on Dongfeng.

And don't forget the organisers, the Volvo Ocean Race is itself half Chinese in any case. After all Volvo Cars is a wholly owned subsidiary of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group based in Hangzhou, China. With that in mind it is kind of like criticising one British company for supporting the efforts of another British company. Now that has a different ring to it, doesn't it.

* From David Brunskill: It's good to see the continuing debate in Scuttlebutt.

I would take issue (very slightly) though as regards the way that the sport is developing as a spectator sport and generating non playing "fans".

Offshore, oceanic and passage racing elements of the sport are now intensely visible to onshore spectators via the widespread development of tracker systems, whether through specialist systems(yellow brick) mobile phones (as in the Round the Island race) and now through boats being required to fit and transmit active AIS (as in the Rolex Middle Sea Race). On board video and facebook chat via satellite or mobile phone is now considered normal.

This has led to races now being followed by families, boyfriends, girlfriends, parents and silver surfers all wanting to see where competitors are and what they are doing. All of a sudden it's much more interesting to see what people are doing offshore - and it injects a note of glamour for the participants too.

Web statistics for the Vendee Globe, Volvo and other Grand Prix events support the huge rise in website hits for this type of race and a corresponding ability of race organisers to generate increasing volumes of online advertising for their websites.

The interest isn't limited to the major events. It is so cheap and cost effective to track races via mobile phones or AIS in particular that it is starting to spread to club run and local passage races.

Relaxation of the racing rules to permit use of autopilot and powered winches, rules which fairly rate furling sails combined with crew number limitations (four crew on a forty foot boat) are also bringing back a sailors to the more gentle forms of passage racing experienced thirty or forty years ago. And these changes enable sailors of all age groups to compete.

Not only this, the computer gamers following the major offshore races are bringing a totally new set of non playing spectators into the sport.

All this makes offshore sailing the element of the sport with a renewed potential for expansion and that which can bring untapped revenues into the sport.

There are spectators, we have aspects of the sport that are intensely interesting from an armchair and we should welcome that.